Nightclub safety debate draws many voices, no consensus at Jacksonville City Hall

Talk of cutting gunfire and violence at Jacksonville nightclubs won easy support Thursday from club operators, disc jockeys, security people and worried neighbors who packed a City Hall meeting room.

But a concrete plan for that could be months away, said the councilman who had asked people there to come with ideas.

“There’s a lot of research I want to do, and I need help from everybody,” Councilman Jim Love told about 35 people whose ideas ranged from voluntary blackballing problem customers to shuttering a nightspot where five people were shot last month, one fatally.

“We do care. … It’s an isolated incident,” said the man, who identified himself only as Eddie. “For everything to be put on us, it’s not fair. … We do not want this to happen to anybody.”

He later told a reporter he wasn’t sure how a gun had gotten into the club, and said an employee who pats down patrons to check for weapons had been devastated after the shootings. He said human error likely led to the gun getting past security measures, but said some mistakes are unavoidable.

“You can search people, but you can’t strip-search them,” said Eddie, who would not discuss details of events that led to the shootings. He said police had taken a DVR used to record events in the club, and he didn’t know whether that had helped the investigation or not.

Love, whose district includes Murray Hill, said he’s been reviewing security ordinances from Birmingham, Ala.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Wichita, Kan.; and Winston-Salem, N.C., for ideas that might work here. Measures in those cities have ranged from requiring annual safety plans and background checks for club managers to setting lighting rules and ratios of employees to patrons.

Some argued for voluntary steps to make clubs safer.

Diallo-Sekou, an activist who said he’s part of a private group called the Entertainment Commission, said about 35 club operators have signed on so far to a pledge to maintain safety measures and work cooperatively with other clubs.

He said the group’s practices include “blackballing” disruptive customers and electronically sharing information about the customers with participating clubs. But that doesn’t have to involve city agencies, Diallo-Sekou said.

“I don’t think regulating people’s business would be good. What I think makes sense is to be a self-regulating group,” he said.

Love said he has no timetable to introduce legislation on the subject. He said he hopes safety measures that eventually come from his efforts will save some lives each year.

“I have three boys,” he told the group, adding that one watched a friend’s band inside Fat Kat last year. “I don’t want them to die. I don’t want them to be shot. … I want them to be safe.”